Expansion of R-1 Central campus sought

Friday, April 27, 2018
New Madrid County R-1 Superintendent Dr. Sam Duncan announces a proposed expansion at the district’s Central campus that will link the region’s past with activities for future students.
Jill Bock/Standard Democrat

NEW MADRID, Mo. — The New Madrid County R-1 superintendent announced a proposed expansion at the District’s Central campus that will link the region’s past with activities for future students.

Dr. Sam Duncan presented the district’s proposal to construct “Mississippian Central” during the New Madrid Historical Museum’s annual Friends meeting on April 20. Mississippian Central will be built on 15 acres of currently unused land located just north of the Central High School football field and the Central Middle School and east of the Lilbourn Historic Site which served as home to the Mississippian Mound Builder Indians.

The three-phase project would provide recreational and sporting opportunities for the district’s students, according to Duncan. The first phase includes a fishing pond, the second phase will be an outdoor classroom and walking trail with the final phase the construction of an outdoor archery/shooting range.

“I wrote in the grant that wouldn’t it be great for arrows to be flying in the outdoor archery range. For boys and girls to be learning how to fish on the very spot where 1,000 years ago the Mississippians did the very same things,” Duncan said. “That is what we are after.”

Plans for the recreational area began after the district partnered with the Missouri Conservation Department.

Through DNR, the district received grant funding to initiate an archery program, which has enjoyed success with the students. Duncan pointed out the R-1 District hosted the 2018 regional district archery competition and 22 students attended the state competition in Branson.

DNR has since provided a grant to enable students to learn to fish. Currently students are fishing at a private landowner’s pond.

Duncan said the district has submitted a $97,000 Land and Water Conservation Fund matching grant proposal to the Department of Natural Resources. The grant calls for a pond, dock and trail on 2.5 of the 15 acres.

While the grant funding is highly competitive, Duncan said the district has received word it passed the first phase of review. Since then Rep. Don Rone and Sen. Doug Libla have offered their support of the district’s proposal.

Duncan said he has also received backing from New Madrid County, which has agreed to dig the pond and line it with clay. The Missouri Conservation Department will provide $10,000 worth of fish to stock the pond.

If received, the grant would provide funds matching the value of materials and labor. The funds would be used to purchase a covered handicapped accessible dock, aerator and pump for the pond.

“A big part of this grant is the Indian heritage,” Duncan said. According to Duncan, DNR is excited about the historic as well as recreational aspects of the proposal.

“They said here is what we can do. We will come out there on that part of the ground (should any Indian artifacts be located). We will get somebody to come out who is official to look it over and do some digs in it, do some cross cutting. If there (are artifacts), we will mitigate your grant with the educational opportunity it presents,” Duncan said.

The superintendent said it is important for the district to get some use from the 15 acres. Even if the district doesn’t get the grant an effort will be made to complete the first phase and honor the Indian civilization which once thrived in the area, he said.

in his address to the museum group, Duncan noted the district intends to work with their efforts to have signage placed near the mound informing the public of the Indians and their culture.

“The beauty of this for me is that if you do the math, July 29, 1969, is when it was declared an historic site. If by July 29, 2019, we have this phase 1 done, we are in the middle of a 50-year celebration of the Lilbourn Historic Site.”

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